Insiders say that Katherine "Ms. Kitty" Harris is going to defy the White House and run for the US Senate seat from Florida being vacated by Bob Graham, who may be vying for the VP slot on the Democratic ticket come November. The White House is upset, fearing a massive Democratic backlash against Harris's role during the 2000 election, when she illegally turned her then Secretary of State office into a Vote-for-Bush war room. Of course, there is also the massive illegal disenfranchisement of almost 100,000 Florida black voters that she spearheaded under Governor Jeb Bush, something the White House certainly doesn't want any press given to.

The White House is backing former HUD cabineteer Mel Martinez, popular with the state's Latino community that they so much want to attract, and with that sort of backing, Martinez should be a shoe-in over Harris, right? Well, not so fast. Mr. Martinez has had some past friendships with local Democrats, a violation of the loyalty oath now demanded by of Republican hopefuls, and then there is the matter of Governor Jeb.

The President's brother, it seems, is quite territorial, and is none too happy about being left with an underfunded "No Child Left Behind" mandate by his brother. He's told the White House to back off, a wish that most brothers would perhaps honor. The problem is, Karl Rove is not Jeb's brother.

But why is Jeb being so territorial about a Harris candidacy that might undermine his brother's chance at re-election? Well it seems that there is some avid speculation (dubbed "The Rumor") that Jeb and Kitty are or have been somewhat of an "item", much to the chagrin of Jeb's wife, Columba, who through a hissy-fit during one of Kitty's visits to the governor's mansion. Well, all's fair in love and war, and besides, don't Republican's think that women are supposed to screw their way to the top?

Speaking of Harris and her successful black voter disenfranchisement campaign, the corporate controlled media is now dutifully reporting a Republican "goal" of attracting 25% of the Black vote in the 2004 campaign. Nonsence! reports The BLACK CoMMentator:

Racial appeals are essential to the GOP’s formula in its southern heartland, the base upon which it builds national electoral victories. Just one year ago, President Bush chose the week of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday to restate his opposition to affirmative action, a theatrically timed message to the party’s race-base. Could such a party really be longing for an influx of ordinary Black voters into their Deep South precinct gatherings? Of course not.

The Republican Party’s central strategic concern is to suppress or contain the Black vote at any and every opportunity, through gerrymandering, election day challenges and intimidation, voter rolls purges, theft of ballots, felony disenfranchisement – every trick in the proverbial book. George Bush lives in the White House because of a successful assault on Black voting rights in Florida. He hopes to repeat the process in November. ...

So, where did the Republicans come up with the goal of capturing 25 percent of the Black vote? From nowhere – they just made it up and threw it out there to give the lie an air of earnestness, in the certain knowledge that corporate media would treat absolute nonsense as serious, newsworthy political business. Just as assuredly, African Americans would seize on the figure as containing some morsel of meaning, and start looking around to see if there was something that they had missed. The fantasy figure also provided an opening for hacks like Jonetta Rose Barras to write opinion pieces for papers like the Washington Post.

The article is of course much longer and as typical of this publication, very well researched.

The BLACK CoMMentator also has a fabulous political cartoon with this article which you can view here. The BLACK CoMMentator comes out every Thursday. Bookmark it. It is simply one of the best written alternative weeklies there is.